


The Facades of Glory

by judyhard1ng



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26858353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judyhard1ng/pseuds/judyhard1ng
Summary: After a Romulan disaster, Deanna is in command of the Enterprise. As she saves her crew, she learns the true meanings of the captain's chair.-x-For Trektober Day 6!Prompt: Captain's Chair
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10
Collections: Trektober 2020





	The Facades of Glory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Captain Natasha Riker-Troi (textsfrompicard)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/textsfrompicard/gifts).



> hi lovelies! taking a break from my Bevanna sagas for a while to participate in Trektober! I will have some Bevanna stories in my Trektober fics as well as a bunch of other pairings, but it will be a while until I update Blue Burns. I hope you enjoy my trektober fics! make sure to wear your mask and have a snack :)
> 
> <3 heath

Taking the captain’s chair was not what Deanna expected from passing her commander’s exam. Nor was she expecting to have to take the helm a mere 3 days after she had been granted her new rank. But the universe seemed to satisfy itself by challenging her at every turn, and she supposed this was no different. Her hands gripped the unfamiliar arms, her nails tingling as they scratched the hard plastic.

She felt like the stars outside the window speckled between the Romulan ships on the viewscreen were closing in, suffocating her as she shrunk back slightly. Her breaths started to speed up. How could she possibly save her captain, her best friend, and her...something (Will was hard to define as her head always liked to clash with her heart) from the Romulans with only Geordi and Worf? 

She cursed under her breath at not seeing the signs that Data had been taken over. His use of contractions, his loss of movement tics, even his different walking speed blended into the background of a supposed peace treaty from the Romulans. Now that had landed her with command of the Enterprise, an audio transmission of Picard being tortured, Beverly being mind probed for medical advances, and Riker caught in the middle of it all, as he just so happened to be too close to Picard when he was kidnapped. 

She stared at the ships out there. Whilst the Romulans had initiated the conflict, firing the first shot proved to be what usually went down in history books about war. Deanna swallowed. “Deanna Troi” was not a name she wanted associated with one of the biggest potential bloodbaths in history. 

She managed to suck more air into her lungs, brushing a stray curl out of her face. Her mind was running through options. Talking to the Romulans had proved fruitless. Their mental shields added to the stress of the day had made figuring their intentions out next to impossible. She only had the surface facts, which were that the Romulans were going to force the Enterprise to surrender publicly, intimidating the Federation and insinuating they were ready for war, as well as bolstering Romulan morale.

She assumed from the facts she had managed to figure out about what they were doing with Picard and Beverly that the Romulans were doing this rather hastily. It seemed Romulan morale being low was at least accurate-to the point where her crew, her friends, and her essential family were being tortured in order to give the Romulans the inside edge. 

The repercussions of this had decided to make themselves very present in her head. No matter how many times it was explained, the legend of Beverly, Will, and Picard being the betrayers of the Federation would prevail in the annexes of Federation history. She put her head in her hands.

The captain’s chair was glorified at the Academy. The students idolized the small cushioned place. How could a few cubic feet of space enthrall hundreds of childrens as they watched the vastness of the stars? How did the small, square seat captivate all those who gazed upon it, fueling their desires and ambitions. Even those who objected to power could not help but gaze at the chair in awe.

The captain’s chair was where things happened. It was where people with the sharpest minds sat, hundreds of ideas whirring behind often steely eyes. It was where the ship moved from, how it interacted with every single person, and how it lived on in history. James Kirk is venerated. Few know the name Hikaru Sulu or Nyota Uhura. Even already in the Federation, Jean-Luc Picard is thrust into a spotlight that blinds everyone to Will, Worf, Geordi, Beverly, and countless more who stand behind his chair, who are some of the voices in his head that influence his control over the greatest flagship there could be. Yet no one saw the three truths of the captain’s chair unless they got to sit in it.

For all the power and glory the captain’s chair and its occupants received, Deanna struggled to feel anything short of minor panic. It did not fail to escape her that the hundreds of lives that were placed under her care could be ended if she spoke one word wrong. She felt her stomach flip. How could captains sit there, nerves contained perfectly inside as they decided whether the thousands on board died or lived every single day? She had always sensed that Picard was bottling emotions deep inside him, his mental control astounding her sometimes. She smiled sadly wondering why she had never bothered to check in with him more regularly.

When the door to the bridge opened and Geordi walked in, she felt a small weight lift from her chest. And then she realized the first of the three truths. The captain’s chair is not just a promise to lead the crew, it’s an invitation for others to learn and to teach. The captain’s chair, after all, is on the bridge. The senior staff might not feel like they are making command decisions outright, but they help the senior staff everyday. 

Geordi sat next to her and said, “I’ve concluded we have one option. I’ll have to get inside Data’s head and use the subroutines the Romulans put inside him to feed back into their systems, hopefully causing a short circuit that will allow us to beam them back.”

He swallowed, and Deanna knew how much it hurt him to try and cut into his friend. She thought through the possibilities.  _ First: It works. Second: It doesn’t work, and Data is permanently damaged. Third: It doesn’t work, and the Romulans catch us and potentially injure our crew and ship even further.  _ Deanna snorted. The majority of the options that faced them had negative and disastrous outcomes.

But she took a deep breath, her hands steadying on the arms of the chair. The captain’s chair accepted the risks and the rewards of Starfleet. Those who sat in it were imbued with the power to decide. And control, like that of a captain, does not come without risk. So she said, “Well, Geordi, I trust you. I don’t know enough about Engineering to fully understand, but I know that you’ll do the right thing.” Geordi smiled at her weakly, and she placed her hand on his.

“Geordi, I know how much this hurts. I want you to know that it isn’t your fault if something happened. The Romulans invaded his head, just as they did to you all those years ago. It’ll work out.” It was then that she realized the second truth of the captain’s chair.

The captain’s chair was shiny and glorious because it was lying. No captain could be one hundred percent perfect. There was a facade necessary to be captain, a certain veneer of calm that hid the truth when the crew needed it most. As she saw Geordi disappear into the turbolift, she swallowed her guilt. She didn’t honestly know whether or not she believed in their plan, but she would try her damn hardest.

As the time passed by and Deanna listened to updates from Geordi that she did not completely understand but knew were good, she realized the third truth of the captain’s chair: it belongs to everyone. The chain of command with first and second officers was set into place for a reason. While it bears the name of the captain, it often belongs to many. In that moment, she was the highest ranking officer, and even still the chair was not hers. 

In this moment, the chair was Geordi’s, who was risking his friend’s life, potentially his own, and who was convincing himself he was doing the right thing. He had control over the fate of the ship, and his counsel was being sought out by her.

She thought back to the times when Picard relied n her powers for help, the times when Bevetrly had to cure a sickness or an injury that had claimed someone ranked above her, the times when Data possessed the strength and intelligence for a situation that a human could not, the times when Guinan essentially made a decision but made it seem like Picard was doing so.

The captain’s chair was a community. It represented the crew’s faith in each other to do what was right. She knew on that ship that Picard, Beverly, and Will had faith in her to take the chair and save them. She had faith in Geordi to take the chair and aid her in doing so. The captain’s chair might be Picard’s domain, but no man can rule by himself.

Worf’s thoughts startled her out of her head. “The electromagnetic field around the Romulan ship is down.”

Deanna immediately said, “Transporter, do we have a lock on them?” The affirmative command sent a wash of relief over her and she quickly ordered them to be beamed aboard, delegating the chair hurriedly to a Lieutenant as she ran to the transporter room.

Her face paled as Beverly and Will materialized holding a battered Picard, his eye swollen black and purple and his eyes barely open. The collective pain from the three of them came smashing towards her like a runaway train, but she remembered what Picard did. What captains do. She absorbed it with tears prickling in her eyes and bottled it away for later. 

The three of them had managed to get Picard seated against the wall, and Beverly had already called a Medical team into sickbay. Deanna crouched next to them and patted her back reassuringly, while also squeezing Will’s hand.

“Captain. The Romulans withdrew after we short circuited their ship.” Picard winced as a smile tried to break free. 

“Commander,” he croaked. “You have done a mighty fine job.”

Deanna smiled and flushed a little. “Now that I know what it’s like in that chair, I must say that I admire you even more.” 

Beverly looked between the two of them with a saddened smile before saying, “You’ll have that chair for a little while longer, Troi. I need to get everyone patched up.” She saluted with a smile and Deanna laughed, the sound brightening everyone’s faces.

Seeing her, the current holder of the chair, smiling, her crew had cheered up themselves. Because the chair was a vow. As the medical teams transported Picard to sickbay, he nodded at her. And she smiled, her head held high. Because the chair had taught her the true meaning of a captaincy. And she was ready for a few more hours, seeing as it was comfier than her regular chair.

**Author's Note:**

> 5 songs while I wrote the fic:
> 
> Sleep at Night by DeathbyRomy  
> Chiquitita by ABBA  
> The Louvre by Lorde  
> Window by Joji  
> Andromeda by Weyes Blood


End file.
